House of third former communist targeted by Polish police

Police have searched the Gdańsk house of 92-year-old Professor Lech Kobyliński, a former member of Poland's defunct communist party, in the third such action during the last three weeks.

Photo: IAR

The search, which was carried out in tandem with prosecutors from the state Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), is part of a campaign apparently aimed at retrieving security services files and other documents relating to the communist era.

However, police left empty-handed after a six-hour search.

Professor Kobyłinski, a member of the communist party from 1957 to 1987, served on the Advisory Council to Poland's Council of State from 1986 to 1989.

The professor told journalists that IPN had been looking for documents supposedly given to him 17 years ago by the late general Edwin Rozłubirski, a member of the Committee for theCountry's Defence (KOK) during the period of martial law (1981-1983).

However, the 92-year-old said on Thursday that he had never possessed such documents.

The sequence of searches began on 16 February, when files were confiscated from the widow of former communist interior minister Czesław Kiszczak.

Among the files were documents apparentlyindicatingthat one-time Solidarity trade union leader Lech Wałesa collaborated with the secret services in the mid-1970s, prior to the 1980 founding of the union.

On 29 February, documents were seized from the house of Poland's last communist leader, the late General Wojciech Jaruzelski.

IPN apparently has a list 21 former communists that could be targeted in the search for documents. (nh/pk)